Vampirates: Tide of Terror (29 page)

42

A MILLION MYSTERIES

Grace was waiting on deck as daylight faded away into dusk. They had sailed through the gray ocean and sky into clearer waters but she still had no clue as to whether Sanctuary might be near or far. She hadn’t seen the captain to ask him. He was busy with his plans — and now, she had plans of her own.

As the sun fell into the obsidian waters, Grace looked down at the ship’s figurehead, waiting for Darcy Flotsam to wake. It happened just a few moments after the sun was finally swallowed by the waves. Grace heard a cracking sound and then saw the first sign of movement from below. Darcy’s neck lifted slightly, causing another small crack. Then her neat bob swished from side to side.

Crack-swish. Crack-swish.
Next her arms jerked into motion —
creee-ak
— and soon her legs, too. She must have been aware she was being watched because she twisted her face up toward Grace and winked before turning back and diving into the water.

She disappeared under the water with a delicate splash and surfaced again a few feet away, smoothing back her sleek black hair and gazing around in wonder, as if she were looking upon the world for the very first time. She paddled about a little bit, then swam around the ship to climb up the ladder and join Grace on the ship’s deck.

“Good evening, Grace,” she said, dripping water all over the red deck boards. “Are you back for good?”

“Yes, Darcy,” said Grace. “At least, I hope so.”

“Then what’s wrong?” Darcy asked. “I can read you like a book, Grace Tempest. In fact, a good deal better. And I can see you’re in one of your agitated moods.”

Grace smiled. Somehow, whatever was happening aboard the ship, Darcy — with her strange ways and words — always made her feel better.

“Darcy, I need to ask you a favor.”

“A favor, eh? Well, ask away, and I shall certainly consider your request most carefully and come back to you with an answer
toute de suite
.” As she spoke, she made her way toward the ship’s bell.

“Wait!” Grace cried.

Darcy stopped in her tracks and turned. “Please, do be patient, Grace. You know it’s my duty to sound the bell. It is my responsibility to wake the crew.”

“Yes, I know,” Grace said. “That’s the favor I need to ask you.”

Darcy wrinkled her nose and furrowed her brow. “I’m a little confused now.”

“Darcy, please will you wait to sound the Nightfall Bell tonight? I want to bring Lorcan up here and I thought it would be easier if we had the deck to ourselves.”

“Oh, Grace.” Darcy’s face fell. “But I thought you knew. Lorcan won’t come up on deck any more. He’s too scared after what happened. He lives in fear of light.”

Grace nodded. “I know that, but I’m not going to give in. With your help, tonight, he
is
going to come up onto deck. I’m just not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”

Darcy smiled. There were tears in her eyes. She under-stood what Grace was about to do. “You’re a wonderful person, Grace Tempest. A wonderful friend.”

A wonderful friend, thought Grace. What she was going to offer to Lorcan tonight exceeded even the offering of a friend. She looked back up to find Darcy smiling.

“Of course I shall do as you ask. I shall just light the lamps, so they’re all ready for later. Then, I’ll go and change into a pretty, dry dress and redo my hair and makeup. Would half an hour give you enough time?”

Grace nodded. “Plenty. Thank you, Darcy. Thank you very much.”

“You’re most welcome,” said Darcy. “Now, off you go and fetch Lieutenant Furey from the gloom of his cabin.”

Grace nodded, smiling, and dashed back inside the ship. She marched purposefully but quietly along the corridor and then down one set of stairs to Lorcan’s cabin. She knocked on the door and, without waiting for an answer, pushed it open.

He was lying in the shadows, one candle glowing feebly at the side of his bed.

“Who is it?” he asked, his voice tired and frail and broken.

“It’s me — Grace.”

“Oh,” he said, his voice empty of emotion. “Are you back on another visit?”

“No,” she said, approaching the bed. “Not on a visit. This time, I’m back for good.”

The words caught his attention and his head twisted toward her. His wound had been freshly bandaged and the dressing of white cloth was neatly tied around the back of his head. His skin was almost as pale.

“Back for good, you say?”

“Yes.” She reached out her hand and touched his arm. He trembled at her touch, but she knew she had made her point.

“Come on,” she said. “It’s time you got up.”

He shook his head. “I’m tired.”

“Of course you’re tired, Lorcan,” she said. “You’re not taking care of yourself. You won’t leave your cabin. You’ve stopped taking blood. No wonder you have no energy. Come on — get out of bed! I’m taking you up onto the deck.”

He froze. “No, Grace.”

“You’ll be all right,” she said. “I know you’re scared, but I’ll be there with you — every step of the way. Besides, it’s pitch black up there. The moon isn’t even out yet.”

“How can it be dark?” Lorcan said. “Darcy hasn’t sounded the Nightfall Bell. Unless I slept through it.”

“No,” Grace said. “She hasn’t struck the bell yet because I asked her not to. I thought it would be easier for you if the deck was empty.”

He pulled himself upright with some effort. “Grace, you’re very kind but I’m not going up onto the deck.”

“Yes, you are,” she said, sounding a lot more resolute than she felt. She pulled back the bedclothes. “Come on!” she said, in her firmest voice. She could see he was thinking about it now.

“It’ll be cold up there,” he said.

“That’s why you’re going to wear your cape. Now, come on, sit up and I’ll help you on with your shoes.”

Not feeling overly optimistic, she turned her back on him for a moment and went to fetch his boots from the other side of the cabin. When she had located both of them, she turned back and found him sitting up, waiting for her. Her heart raced with happiness. She wanted to cry out but she had to keep strong and stay focused. There was a lot to do in a short period of time.

“Here you are,” she said, setting the boots down on the floor and kneeling in front of him. She lifted his right foot into the boot and began tightening the laces. That foot done, she repeated the operation with the left one. Then she drew herself up in front of him.

“There,” she said. “Now you must stand up.”

He paused, taking a breath. She realized he was weaker than she thought.

“Shall I help you?” she asked.

He nodded, slowly. She was happy to do it but distressed to find that he was so much weaker than she had realized. Whether from lack of blood or exercise, Lorcan had lost all his former vitality. She wondered if he would ever get it back.

“On the count of three,” she said, reaching her hands out to him. He clasped them, his touch as chill as ever.

“One ...two...three!”

He rocked up and onto his feet. They wobbled together unsteadily for a moment or two and then he was standing. Standing properly.

“Well done,” she said, straightening his shirt. “And now, let’s put your cloak around you.”

She took his heavy cloak from the chair and placed it over his shoulders. She began bringing the two cords together to tie them, but he shook his head. “Let me do it.”

“Yes, yes of course.” She placed the cords in each of his hands and stepped back.

His fingers fumbled with the ties and, on his first attempt at a knot, he failed completely. The cape slipped from his shoulders, down onto the floor. Grace knelt down and picked it up again, placing it back over his shoulders.

“Thanks,” he said, clearly embarrassed and frustrated.

Grace stepped back again, wanting nothing so much as to make the knot for him, but knowing how important it was that he do this small thing for himself.

It was torture watching him fail to tie the cords for a fourth, fifth, and sixth time but Grace refused to give in. Each time, she whispered words of encouragement to him, pulled up the cloak, and handed him back the ties. On the seventh attempt, he managed to entwine the cords. He wouldn’t have won any honors in Captain Quivers’ Knot class, thought Grace, but the knot held the cloak tight around his neck and that was all that mattered.

“I think you’re ready,” Grace said, opening the door.

“Let’s take it slowly,” Lorcan said. “I’m a little unsteady on my feet these days.”

“Of course,” said Grace, looping her arm through his. “Just lean on me.”

And so they made their way, very slowly at first, along the corridor and up the stairway. Their speed increased as they moved down the second corridor, but Lorcan leaned against her the whole way, his body frail and in need of support.

“We’re at the door to the deck now,” she said, immediately feeling him tense up. “It’s okay, Lorcan. Really, it is. You’re going to be just fine.”

“It
is
dark out there, isn’t it?” he said.

“Yes.”

“Just check again for me.”

“All right.” She pushed the door open the tiniest fraction. It was fully black outside, save for the stars and the thin crescent moon.

“It’s dark,” she said. “Oh, Lorcan, it’s a beautiful dark night.
Please
come outside.” She held open the door and waited. “If you won’t do this for yourself, at least do it for me.”

He nodded and, reaching for her support once more, stepped out into the night air. “There, now,” she said. “You’re outside. How does it feel?”

“It feels good,” he said, breathing it in. “It feels good.”

She walked him up to the deck-rail. Instinctively, he reached out his hands to the metal. He held onto it and leaned forward, just as he had so many times before, raising his face to feel the ocean breeze.

“I’ve missed this,” he said.

“I’ve come back,” Grace said. “And now you must make your way back, too.” “What do you mean?” he asked. She sighed. It was now or never. “You have to start taking blood again,” she said. Her heart was pounding now. But her fate was sealed. It had been sealed long ago. There was no turning back. “I saw Shanti earlier today,” she said.

“Shanti,” he repeated, as if the name stirred only a far-away memory.

“Your donor,” Grace said. “I saw her and she told me that you had stopped sharing with her.”

He said nothing, his tightly bound face rising in the air. He was harder to read than the masked captain these days.

“You must take blood again,” Grace said. “If not Shanti’s then ...then, you must take mine.”

He turned to face her. Though much of his expression was blocked by his bandage, she could tell he was shocked.

“Grace, I would never take your blood. Shanti is my donor . . .”

Grace nodded. Tears were running down her face — whether of pain or joy or relief she was unsure. “It’s just that Shanti thought you didn’t want her blood any more. But that you might take mine. That I might become your new donor.”

“And you’d have done that for me?” he said. His hand slipped a little along the deck-rail. It met hers, the sides of their little fingers pressing against each other.

“You saved me, Lorcan,” Grace said. “You saved me and cared for me and protected me. And, of course, I’ll do whatever it takes to save you.”

He dropped his head.

“I’ve been so stupid,” he said.

“Why? What do you mean?”

“I didn’t think you were coming back,” he said. “And I missed you. I missed you so.”

His words thrilled her. Of course they did. But at the same time, she felt a strong sense of responsibility. Had he really stopped taking blood, not out of despair for his blindness, but because he missed her? She had never mattered so much to anyone, other than Connor, before. Her feelings were an unfamiliar blend of delight and fear.

“Look out at the ocean,” he said. “What do you see?”

She looked into the distance.

“I see very little, except ...except these dark waters going on and on and on for ever.”

He nodded. “That’s what it’s like for me. But it isn’t just the ocean that stretches out for ever. It’s time. Imagine if all that ocean was a patchwork of days and nights and hours and minutes. Stretching on and on for all time, without any end. Imagine if you had to face all of that on your own.”

“But you’re not on your own,” Grace said.

“Not now,” he answered, the side of his finger pressing against hers.

They stood there for a time, saying nothing. Tears streamed down Grace’s face but she left the wind to dry them.

“I’m cold,” she said, shivering.

“Here,” he lifted up his arm. “Come inside my cloak.”

She came closer, tucking her body against his as he brought the warm cloak back around them. “Lean on
me
now,” he said, drawing her closer to him. She smiled. “We’re going to find a cure for you,” she said. “That’s where we’re traveling to now, you know. To a place called Sanctuary. To meet a friend of the captain’s — a man called Mosh Zu Kamal.”

Lorcan took a breath. “Is that a fact?” he said. “Is that a fact?”

“The captain told me himself,” said Grace. “He’s not going to give up on you, and neither am I.”

Lorcan smiled. “Welcome back to
The Nocturne
, Grace,” he said.

She twisted her head, puzzled. “
The Nocturne
? What’s that?”

“Why, ’tis the name of this ship, of course.”

“Really? I didn’t even know it
had
a name.”

“Ah well, Grace. There’s a million mysteries aboard this ship and you’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of them. I reckon you’d better stay a while longer if you want to find out some more.”

She smiled and drew deeper into the warmth of his cloak.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I might just do that.”